Forward.com

Remembering Daddy Long Legs“We loved you as a teenage prostitute in ‘Pretty Baby’, onstage in ‘Chicago’ and as a worthy adversary to Tom Cruise,” said gossip columnist Liz Smith to Brooke Shields, who presented dancer-choreographer Tommy Tune with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the June 2 “Fred and Adele Astaire Awards Gala To Benefit the Auditory/Oral School of New York.” Samuel and Pnina Bravmann, the founders of the institution, had built what is known as an option school (Option Schools International is an umbrella organization of 49 educational institutions that mainstreams profoundly deaf children by providing auditory/oral education).…Read more

Tribute to Jewish WomenIt was a double-nachas day for real estate mogul Larry Silverstein when his wife, Klara, and daughter, Lisa, received the Philanthropy Award at the May 29 UJA-Federation of New York’s Women’s Philanthropy inaugural luncheon. “Our greatest gift is to inspire future generations,” said Klara, whose roster of affiliations leaves one breathless: “All our children and grandchildren have made their mark on the Jewish and non-Jewish community.” Lisa, senior vice president of Silverstein Properties, is involved in the development of the World Trade Center site. The 700 guests who filled the New York Hilton ballroom enjoyed Grammy-winning songwriter and UJA Compassion Award recipient Phoebe Snow’s performance of “Everything I Do, I Do for You” — a tribute to her daughter born with multiple birth injuries, to whom she had devoted 31 years of loving care. The official credentials of keynote speaker Cherie Blair read: “Queens Counsel Barrister, Judge, County Court and Crown Court and Former Prime Ministerial Consort of Great Britain” (to us colonials: wife of former prime minister Tony Blair. All this is quite remarkable for someone who was raised by a single mother became the first member of her family to attend university. Specializing in employment and human rights, Blair is a patron of Norwood, a social service agency in England and Wales that provides services to disadvantaged and disabled Jewish children and their families. She stated: “Women live at the very heart of every community, transmit human and global values to the next generation.… Societies where women have a voice are the most prosperous and stable.”…Read more

Hillel Looks to the Future“I grew up in a low-income, middle-class area in [Santiago] Chile,” said Manhattan real estate maven Jacky Teplitzky, recipient of the Sweet Dreams Award at the Pajama Program’s May 2 luncheon, held at the Hotel Pierre. Her family moved to Israel, where Teplitzky served in the army. The family then immigrated to New York, where Teplitzky and her team at Prudential Douglas Elliman have sold more than $500 million in Manhattan real estate. “I promised to give back,” said Teplitzky, a Pajama Program advisory board member. “I wanted my kids to know about philanthropy.” Founded seven years ago by Genevieve Piturro, the organization distributes pajamas to the needy throughout the United States and overseas. Last year, Piturro received a letter from Israel, thanking her for “sending pajamas to our [Hadassah Neurim] Youth Aliyah Villages for teenage kids… the children’s sizes they took home for siblings, others were donated to a nearby orphanage.” Also honored were “Mother of the Year, ” Academy Award winner Marcia Gay Harden, and “Father of the Year,” NBC’S “Today Show” weatherman/host, Al Roker. Oscar winner Ellen Burstyn presented the awards.…Read more

Remembering a Yiddish TreasureAmong the attendees at the recent “Evening With Ackerman” — featuring Diane Ackerman, author of “The Zookeeper’s Wife: A War Story” (W.W. Norton, 2007), and held at New York’s Kosciuszko Foundation — were several Polish diplomats. The event can best be described as a Polish-Jewish historic love-fest. Ackerman exquisitely chronicles how Warsaw zookeepers Jan and Antonina Zabinski saved 300 Jews during the Nazi occupation by hiding them in the zoo’s animal cages. Sponsored by the Museum of the History of Polish Jews/North American Council, the participants included Sigmund Rolat, chairman of MHPJ/NAC; Poland’s consul general ,Krzystof Kasprzyk; Minister of Culture and National Heritage of Poland Bogdan Zdrojewski; Polish Cultural Institute of New York’s director ,Monika Fabijanska; event emcee and MHPJ/NAC treasurer Michael Berkowicz, and Tovah Feldshuh, who presented a fragment from “Irena’s Vow,” her one-woman portrayal of 18-year-old Polish Catholic nursing student Irena Gut. After being beaten and raped by nine Russian soldiers, Gut risked her life to hide 13 Jews in the home of the highest-ranking Nazi officer in Tarnopol, Poland.…Read more

Christie Brinkley Goes OrganicIn 1930, Tel Aviv’s first mayor, Meir Dizengoff, gave his home over to the city to be transformed into the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, with the injunction: “Guard it, for it bears a blessing, for it is destined to become an honor and a credit to our city.” At the May 8 American Friends of Tel Aviv Museum of Art’s gala in celebration of Alexander Calder, held at Capitale on Manhattan’s Bowery, the festive crowd included Mark Rothko’s son Christopher, who is involved in managing the Rothko legacy; Marc Chagall’s granddaughter Bella Mayer, and Alexander Calder’s daughter Mary Calder Rower and grandson Alexander “Sandy” Rower. Calder’s longtime friend, lawyer and founder of the Calder Prize, Stanley Cohen, was also in attendance.…Read more